The Threeness of Being Black, American and a Woman & Running a Radio Station While At It

The Threeness of Being Black, American and a Woman & Running a Radio Station While At It

Written By Sara Lomax-Reese

W.E.B. DuBois once famously framed the duality of being Black and American as a “two-ness” or “double consciousness.”

“An American, a Negro,” he wrote, “two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.”

Building on Dr. DuBois’s brilliant analysis, as we march into Women’s History Month this March—especially during this #MeToo moment, I have been reflecting on what it is to be a Black American woman. It’s there where we discover a kind of “three-ness” or triple-consciousness, an existence that informs how we as Black women navigate this world and our lives.

This question has really piqued my interest in the wake of a new report from the Women in Media Center entitled The Status of Women of Color in the U.S. News Media 2018. Released last week, the report found that while women are more than half the U.S. population, and people of color nearly 40 percent, women of color represent just 7.95 percent of U.S. print newsroom staff, 12.6 percent of local TV news staff, and 6.2 percent of local radio staff.

Also, checkout the conversation that Sara Lomax Reese, President & CEO of WURD Radio and Melody Spann-Cooper, President & CEO of WVON, have with Charles Ellison, Host of Reality Check. Both discuss what it is like to be Black women in the media and the responsibility it takes to run Black owned and operated radio staions.